April-June, 2009

General Electric Corporation has announced that it will work with Geron
Corporation to use human embryonic stem cells to produce heart and liver
cells that will be sold for use in early drug toxicity trials. Konstantin
Fiedler of General Electric said that the development of standardized human
cells, analogous to standardized lab rats, might see animal trials replaced
by tests on human cells derived from embryonic stem cells.[Reuters]
The plan is similar to the 1999 suggestion of People for Ethical Treatment
of Animals that lab animals be replaced by human embryos [World
Net Daily]

An American organization, the Family Research Council, has announced the
creation of a new website,
Clear Conscience Health
Care. The site will advocate for freedom of conscience for health care
workers, but will also argue against funding abortion through taxes.

The
Louisiana Healthcare Workers Conscience Act has passed the Senate and
House and is to become law in the state when signed by the Governor. The law
is procedure specific, relating only to abortion, dispensation of
abortifacient drugs, human embryonic stem cell research, human embryo
cloning, euthanasia, or physician-assisted suicide; contraception is not
included. It requires a health care worker to notify an employer of
conscientious objections, and the onus is placed on the employer to find
someone willing to provide the requested service. The worker is also obliged
to notify the patient of objections before providing any service or
consultation.

The Nebraska state Board of Mental Health Practice has refused to adopt a
protection of conscience policy to protect counsellors who refuse, for
reasons of conscience, to provide counselling that would support homosexual
relationships. [AP]

The Mexican state of Jalisco has begun litigation in Mexico's
Supreme Court to prevent public hospitals in the state from being forced to
provide abortions under Official Mexican Norm (NOM) 046-SSA2-200519. The
regulation demands that abortions be provided to a rape complainant within
72 hours of a request. The regulation has elicited
widespread
resistance among objecting health care workers and institutions. [LifeSite
News]

An
op-ed column in The Guardian illustrates the logical parallels
between arguments for assisted suicide/euthanasia and abortion advocacy.
Sarah Wootton, Executive Director of the British assisted suicide advocacy
group Dignity in Dying, argues that suicide is a "legal choice" and frames
the organization's efforts as a campaign for choice. The organization's
website emphasizes three principles: "choice,
access and control." These principles (choice, access, autonomy) are
also put forward as reasons to restrict or suppress freedom of conscience
for health care workers. Note that Wootton was a
founding
trustee of Abortion Rights, one of the groups that just released a
report critical of conscientious objection to abortion [Three
organisations complain about freedom of conscience]. Legalization of
assisted suicide or euthanasia is, like legalization of abortion, leading to
demands that health care workers facilitate the procedures. [Belgium:
Mandatory Referral for Euthanasia;
Case of the Disappearing Plaintiffs]

As a result of concerns that psychologists and other professionals may be
forced to provide counselling to support homosexual relationships, or to
refer for such counselling, the Nebraska Board of Mental Health Practice is
being asked to adopt a protection of conscience policy. A spokesman for the
Nebraska Catholic Conference said that, without such protection, it may be
necessary for Catholic agencies to cease offering mental health services.
Once such agency in Lincoln provides about $100,000.00 worth of free mental
health services annually.[CNA]

A bioethics advisory group appointed by President George W. Bush in 2001
has been disbanded. Reid Cherlin, a spokesman for the administration, said
that the now defunct Council had philosophical leanings and tended to engage
in discussion rather than the development of consensus. A new council to be
appointed will be responsible for offering "practical policy options." Prof.
R. Alta Charo of the University of Wisconsin commented that the Council had
acted like a debating club, and that a new council should help to develop
"ethically defensible policy." [New
York Times] The difficulty here is that no consensus exists with respect
to a number of controversial issues. Thus, practical policy options will
either have to be based on disputed reasoning, or upon a false consensus
manufactured by the exclusion of dissenting opinions. [See
Establishment Bioethics] Charo, an Obama
supporter who
was on Obama's
transition team, has been among those who want restrictions placed on
freedom of conscience for health care workers.[See
The Silence of Good People]

The National Catholic Bioethics Center has
published a statement from 14 Catholic scholars on the subject of Catholic
teaching on the provision of artificial nutrition and hydration. The
statement is reported to be a response to
Undue Burden?, a commentary published in February, 2009 by the
Consortium of Jesuit Bioethics
Programs. The differences between the two groups indicate the potential
for conflicts of conscience even within denominational health care
institutions that are formally governed by common principles.

A Brampton, Ontario, obstetrician has refused to sterilize a 21 year old
woman who is pregnant with her second child. The woman and her husband
intend to make careers as police officers and want only two children. There
are no medical reasons for the procedure. The news report does not disclose
whether or not the Caesareansection contemplated
by the woman is related to her request for sterilization. In any case,
obstetrician refused because he considered her too young for the procedure.
Her family doctor has told her that it is unlikely he will find any
obstetricians willing to do a tubal ligation on a woman her age. [Toronto
Sun] The physician's refusal appears to be motivated by prudential
judgement, not reasons of conscience.

Official Mexican Norm (NOM) 046-SSA2-200519 states that an abortion will
be provided to a rape complainant within 72 hours of the request. Hundreds
of health care workers and institutions in Mexico are reported to be
registering their objections to avoid participation in the procedure. The
states of Aguascalientes, Baja California, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Coahuila,
Guanajuato, Jalsico, Michoacan, Nuevo Lion, Puebla, Queretaro, Tabasco, and
Tamaulipas are among those in which workers and institutions are seeking
exemption from the regulation.[LifeSite
News]

A group of concerned physicians held a press conference in Sacramento,
California, to express concern about the intention of the Obama
administration to revoke a federal protection of conscience regulation. They
released letters to President Barack Obama and the Governor of New York
which warn that suppression of freedom of conscience in health care will
drive many out of the professions and exacerbate existing problems with
access to health care. [News
release][Media
advisory][Letter
to President][Letter
to Governor of California][Media
coverage][NPR
report]

Lord Falconer of Thoroton has tabled an amendment to the Coroners and
Justice Bill, now before the British House of Lords. The amendment would
make it legal to assist a person to leave the country to commit suicide. The
amendment requires certificates from two medical practitioners to the effect
that the patient is terminally ill and competent. [Amendment]

Lord Alderdice has proposed an amendment to the Coroners and Justice Bill
that is being considered in the British House of Lords. The amendment would
permit assisted suicide in cases of "confirmed, incurable and disabling
disease" that prevent someone from committing suicide without assistance, as
long as a certificate from the coroner is obtained in advance. The amendment
includes no protection of conscience provision. On the other hand, it does
not identify any individual or profession as having responsibility to
provide assistance. [House
of Lords]

The House of Lords will soon be hearing the case of Debbie Purday, who is
seeking assurance that her husband will not be prosecuted for assisted
suicide if he takes her to Switzerland for that purpose. Meanwhile, 800
Britons are reported to have joined Dignitas, the Swiss suicide
organization, and 34 are ready to go to Zurich to commit suicide.[The
Guardian]

The President of the U.S. Bishops' Conference, Francis Cardinal George,
has expressed appreciation for President Barack Obama's promise to "honor
the conscience of those who disagree with abortion," adding that he looks
forward to working with the Administration to that end. [Catholic
News Agency]

A Louisiana nurse who was fired because she refused to administer the
morning after pill will get her day in court as a result of a decision by
the Louisiana Supreme Court. The court has rejected an appeal by the
hospital, which attempted unsuccessfully to secure a summary judgement in
its favour in a lower court. The case dates from 2005. [ADF
news release]

US House of Representative members ames Sensenbrenner Jr. (Wis.), Chris
Smith (N.J.) and John Fleming (La.) have written to President Obama
expressing hope that he will stand by his comments at the Notre Dame
commencement and ensure that health care providers should not be forced to
participate in procedures to which they object for reasons of conscience [The
Hill]

President Obama's reference to a "sensible" conscience clause has
elicited a sceptical response from a large Amercian advocacy group, the
Freedom2Care coalition."We have
specifically requested a meeting with President Obama or his staff and have
not received any response. If the president is truly concerned about finding
common ground, he should meet with doctors and patients who would be
affected by the rescission of the conscience clause, rather than spout
meaningless rhetoric in name of unity."[News
release]

Speaking at the commencement ceremony at Notre Dame University, President
Barack Obama called for "open hearts, open minds and fair minded words" when
addressing controversial topics like abortion. He said, "Let's honor the
conscience of those who disagree with abortion, and draft a sensible
conscience clause, and make sure that all of our health care policies are
grounded not only in sound science, but also in clear ethics, as well as
respect for the equality of women." [Text
of Address] The practical problem continues to be the difficulty of
reaching agreement about what is "sensible."

In 2008, the Saint Ignatius University Hospital (Hospital Universitario
San Ignacio) in Columbia refused to provide a eugenic abortion. The
Columbian government has announced that it will fine the hospital the
equivalent of about $5,100.00 for refusing to provide the procedure. [LifeSite
News]

Addressing the Pontifical Academy of Social Science, Pope Benedict XVI
reminded the audience that "the right to life and the right to freedom of
conscience and religion as being at the centre of those rights that spring
from human nature itself." [Text]

Responding to attacks on freedom of conscience from the Ontario Human
Rights Commission, Randy Hillier, a candidate for the leadership of the
Conservative Party in Ontario, Canada, has proposed a
Freedom of Association and Conscience Act.

American organizations opposing President Obama's plan to revoke a
regulation protecting freedom of conscience in health care have reported
that 340,000 comments supporting their position have been submitted to the
Department of Health and Human Services. [LifeSite
News]

The Christian Legal Society and Christian Medical Association have filed
an amicus brief in the Montana Supreme Court in the appeal of Baxter vs.
State of Montana. Robert Baxter was a plaintiff in a case that led to a
finding by a Montana judge that there is a "constitutional right" to
physician assisted suicide in the state. The brief asks the Supreme Court to
reverse the ruling, but focuses on the need for freedom of conscience for
Montana physicians in the face of a judicially created "right" to asissted
suicide.[News release][Brief]
[The
Case of the Disappearing Plaintiffs: Robert Baxter et al vs. State of
Montana (Montana, USA, 2008-2009)]

Responding to a question at a news conference about a proposed
Freedom of Choice Act, President Barack Obama stated that the bill is
not a high legislative priority. He said that he plans to "focus on those
areas that we can agree on." [Transcript]
If that is his intention, one would expect him to support measures to ensure
that health care workers are not forced to participate in procedures to
which they object for reasons of conscience. Instead, he ordered the
suspension of a protection of conscience regulation enacted by the
Department of Health and Human Services in 2008, and his administration is
moving to revoke it.

Missouri
House Bill 226 will make it impossible for force any pharmacy in the
state to "perform, assist, recommend, refer to, or participate in any act or
service in connection with any drug or device that is an abortifacient,
including but not limited to the RU486 drug and emergency contraception such
as the Plan B drug." The bill also prohibits litigation, disciplinary action
or discrimination against pharmacies that refuse to dispense such drugs or
devices. The bill has passed the Missouri House as an amendment A news
report describes it as a protection of conscience measure, and it would be
supportive of objecting pharmacists. However, it does not refer to freedom
of conscience. At least one supporter of the bill appears to argue that the
bill is intended to protect businesses in the free market against
unwarranted state interference.[Missourian]

By a vote of 136-12, the Michigan State Senate resolved to support the
HHS regulation against plans by the Obama Administration to revoke it. [Michigan
Senate Resolution No. 43] The resolution was
applauded by the state's Catholic Conference.

Fordham University's Center on Religion and Culture hosted a forum
called, "Matters of Conscience: When Moral Precepts Collide with Public
Policy." Panelists were Robert Vischer, Ph.D., associate professor at the
University of St. Thomas Law School and author of Conscience and the
Common Good: Reclaiming the Space Between Person and State (Cambridge,
2009), Douglas Kmiec, the Caruso Family Chair in Constitutional Law at
Pepperdine University, Nadine Strossen, professor of law at New York
University, and Marc D. Stern, acting co-executive director of the American
Jewish Congress. [Fordham]

Sally Steenland, Senior Policy Advisor for the Faith and Progressive
Policy Initiative of the Center for American Progress, moderated a panel
discussion that included Holly Fernandez Lynch, Author of Conflicts of
Conscience in Health Care: An Institutional Compromise; Willie J.
Parker, an Obstetrician/Gynecologist and Director of Family Planning for
Washington Hospital Center; Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, Professor of
Theology at Chicago Theological Seminary and CAP Senior Fellow; and Melissa
Rogers, Director of the Center for Religion and Public Affairs at the Wake
Forest University Divinity School. [CAP]

The legalization of assisted suicide in Washington state is generating
attacks on health care workers unwilling to be involved with the procedure.
The first patient to ask for a lethal prescription could not find a
physician willing to provide it before he died. His granddaughter complains
that Spokane area hospitals "do not provide support or direction of any
kind" for assisted suicide. She is urging citizens to contact legislators to
demand "access to all our rights according to the law." The implication is
that institutions and/or health care workers should be forced to participate
in assisted suicide.[The
Spokesman Review] "The day may be coming, and it might not be that far
away," warns Wesley J. Smith, "when doctors who are asked to help kill a
patient. . .will be forced to either do the deed or refer to a doctor her or
she knows will do the deed." [Second
Hand Smoke]

Two years ago, Japanese researcher Shinya Yamanaka announced that he had
discovered how adult skin cells can be converted into stem cells, which can
be used to produce other kinds of body tissue. It now appears that it would
be possible to use stem cells derived from the skin of a single adult to
produce both sperm and egg, which could then be combined to produce a human
embryo. The possibility is discussed in a paper,
The Challenge of Regulating Rapidly Changing Science: Stem Cell Legislation
in Canada. The authors argue against legal restrictions on such research
on the grounds that legislation cannot keep pace with scientific
developments.

Richard Land, President of The Ethics and
Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, argues that
American political life and freedom will suffer if the expression of
religious belief is suppressed in public discourse. See
The Danger of the State as a Substitute for Conscience.

The Florida Catholic Conference of Bishops is lobbying state legislators
because of concern that the proposed Prevention First Act (Senate
Bill 310) would adversely affect health care workers opposed to abortion
and the morning-after pill.[Florida
Catholic] The bill imposes a duty on institutions and pharmacies that
stock contraceptives to provide the drug to rape complainants, but does not
impose a duty on individual health care workers. However, parts of the bill
could be interpreted to require referral, a condition that is not acceptable
to some conscientious objectors.

Speaking on behalf of Reform Judaism, Rabbi David Saperstein of the
organization's Religious Action Center has issued a statement supporting
revocation of the HHS regulation that secures freedom of conscience for
health care workers. [JT]
On the other hand, Saperstein, acting as individual, signed a letter
supporting the principle of freedom of conscience in health care [See
Supporters of freedom of conscience in USA include administration advisors].

A large majority of American adults surveyed in a poll commissioned by
the Christian Medical Association (CMA) support freedom of conscience in
health care, and an overwhelming majority of responding Christian physicians
state that they will leave medicine rather than violate their conscientious
convictions.[Survey]

A two month-old baby diagnosed with Joubert Syndrome is at the centre of
an ethical controversy at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children. The parents
of Kaylee Wallace would have aborted her had they been aware of the
condition, which is not described as a terminal illness [Joubert
Syndrome Foundation]. They instructed doctors to remove her respirator,
expecting that she would die and that her heart could be transplanted.
Kaylee did not stop breathing, as a result of which the hospital decided
that she was not a potential organ donor. The child's father was angered by
the suggestion of a doctor that food and fluids should be withdrawn in order
to cause her death "with dignity." A disability rights group has complained
that the child is not dying but is being portrayed as if she is, while the
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition has expressed concern that Ontario's "Non
Heart Beating Cadaver Donor Protocol" encourages organ harvesting before
death has been clearly established. The case involves several contentious
ethical issues and illustrates the potential for conflicts of conscience
among health care workers who find themselves in such a situation.[LifeSite
News]

Eight prominent American religious believers have signed a letter to
President Obama urging support for freedom of conscience in health care.
Five of the signatories are members of a presidential advisory council.
While they are not unanimous in their views on the HHS regulation itself,
they argue that a proper approach will permit accommodation of conscientious
objection to the point of undue hardship.

"You can't fault them for their own moral decisions, but there's a point
where easing suffering comes into play," Steve Wallace said.

The comment, from a man whose father was unable to find a Washington
State physician willing to participate in his suicide, reflects the same
reasoning that would see objecting health care workers forced to participate
in controversial procedures. Washington legalized assisted suicide on 5
March, 2009. (News
Tribune)

Commenting on the story, Wesley J. Smith stated its primary purpose was
"to "shame" area doctors and hospitals to participate in assisted suicide."
(Secondhand
Smoke)

Catholic bishops representing 3.5 million adherents in New Jersey have
told the Obama administration that freedom of conscience is one of the
"building blocks" of American society, and is a human right that Congress
can neither create nor grant. They oppose revocation of the HHS protection
of conscience regulation. [Catholic
Star Herald]

Health care professionals appeared at a news conference held by
Freedom2Care at the National Press
Club in Washington, DC, to draw attention to their concerns about freedom of
conscience in health care. The conference was held the day before the last
day for public comment on plans by the Obama administration to revoke a
protection of conscience regulation enacted by the previous administration.
[Fox
News]

William Murphy, Catholic Bishop of Rockville Centre, has warned that
plans by the Obama administration to revoke a protection of conscience
regulation are inconsistent with the best political and legal traditions of
the United States. Bishop Murphy is the chairman of the the U.S. Bishops'
Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development. [Nation's
conscience rights history is threatened]

A euthanasia/assisted suicide activist group, Compassion and Choices
(formerly the Hemlock Society) has released a statement from a woman who has
been unable to find a doctor in the state willing to prescribe lethal
medication. Last fall, a Montana judge ruled that assisted suicide was a
constitutional "right" in the state. The state medical association holds
that involvement in assisted suicide is unethical. (Bozeman
Daily Chronicle)

The Illinois Circuit Court in Springfield has issued a temporary order
that prohibits state officials from enforcing a 2005 regulation that ordered
all pharmacies to dispense potential embryocides. The judge ruled that the
regulation could harm objecting pharmacists and was prima facie in violation
of the state'sHealth
Care Right of Conscience Act. [News
release]

Dr. Robert Walley, executive director head of MaterCare International
(MCI), has denounced plans by the Obama administration to revoke a
protection of conscience regulation for health care workers. Dr. Walley
protests that the plans amount to "a form of totalitarianism and. . .
discrimination and persecution." MaterCare International is an association
of obstetrician/gynaecologists that works to ensure the health of mothers
and babies.

A lengthy article by Charles Lewis in Canada's National Post
discusses current and developing controversies in Canada and the United
States over freedom of conscience in health care [The
next moral quagmire: conscience].

Attempts by activists to secure recognition by the UN Commission on
Population and Development (CPD) of sexual and reproductive health "rights"
have failed. The term "sexual and reproductive health and rights" was
removed from the final document, and delegates representing nine countries
went on to explicitly deny that the final document included any new "rights"
or that it could be construed to promote a "right" to abortion. The point is
important because of continuing and intensifying effforts to suppress
freedom of conscience by declaring morally controversial services and
procedures to be human "rights."[CFAM]

A 45 year old English woman who suffers from multiple sclerosis and wants
to commit suicide has been given leave to appeal to the House of Lords.
Debbie Purdy wants to ensure that her husband will not be prosecuted if he
assists her by going with her to a suicide facility in Switzerland run by
Dignitas. [Telegraph
& Argus] Dignitas is reported to be seeking confirmation that Swiss law
will allow the assisted suicide of a healthy Canadian woman. She wants to
commit suicide at the Dignitas facility with her husband, who is ill. [BBC]
Legalization of assisted suicide would cause conflicts of conscience in the
medical profession in England and elsewhere[SeeBritish
survey shows most physicians oppose assisted suicide].

Sen. Tom Coburn, a physician, proposed an amendment to a
budget bill to ensure that the money was not used to suppress freedom of
conscience among health care workers. The amendment was defeated. [News
release]

Two U.S. Senators who are members of President Obama's Democratic party
have asked the President to preserve freedom of conscience for health care
workers. In a letter to the President, Senators Ben Nelson of Nebraska and
Bob Casey of Pennsylvania asked him "to preserve the conscience protection
rule, which defends individual health care providers and entities with moral
concerns regarding specific procedures." [Christian
Telegraph]

Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, an Episcopal minister who will become
president and dean of Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
considers abortion a "blessing" and believes that everyone involved in
providing abortions is doing "holy work." In consequence, Ragsdale opposes
freedom of conscience for health care workers and demands that they leave
their professions if they refuse to become involved with abortion. These
comments were made in 2007 [NARAL]
and were presumably available to the School when she was unanimously chosen
for "gifts, skills, and experience" which were said to be "an excellent
match" for the selection criteria employed by the school. [EDS
News release]